By almost any yardstick our recent Silicon Beach Expo was very successful. Nearly two thousand people of all walks of life, ages, and levels of computer knowledge came down to the Holiday Inn and what can be best described as a festival environment. Twenty five vendors (we had to turn some away) enjoyed a steady stream of the conversant, confused, confounded, and curious for three days of fun and education about the Internet and information technology.

Since this was our first expo we were not exactly sure how things were going to go or what type of audience we would draw. We clearly brought the Holiday Inn to its knees electrically with as much demand on their electrical system as can be mounted. After some fits and starts (not the least of which was yours truly knocking a power cord out with his size 14 brogans and clobbering 4 booths) we finally got the problem cleared up thanks to Dan Bender’s savvy, the Holiday Inn’s engineering staff, and a late night trip to K-Mart for extension cords.

We were surprised to notice a large number of retired people at the expo. They were very curious and had many questions. On more than one occasion they cited a desire to communicate with their grandchildren who have been zipping through the net with the aplomb and dexterity of a romp through playground equipment.

The seminars in Basic Internet was clearly the most popular. Dave Goldflies of Cyber Sites, a regional entertainer (former bass player with the Allman Brothers) and Web page designer kept his seminars light and entertaining.....grabbing his violin in the middle of a session to keep the environment light and whimsical (people actually applauded at his seminars). With a seminar room with 30 chairs we consistently filled it up and had floor sitters backed up to the door. We averaged sixty people an hour through all three days for about seven hundred and fifty attendees. Of course some people took multiple courses. The expo clearly established the need for seminars on the basics. Judy Weimar of A Balloon Fantasy added to the festival motif with a balloon rendition of a computer monitor and keyboard. The Dream Glider virtual reality hang glider entertained many with a chance to either fly with the birds or through a tornado.

From near and far they came. We were amazed to discover that one couple traveled all the way from Tampa for this event. Another couple came from Baton Rouge. Others from Birmingham and Panama City. Approximately 40 Navarre High School students came to hear Del Stone of the Daily News speak. A representative from the Small Business Development Center of Little Rock, Arkansas made the journey and was convinced that this was the type of event that they needed there.

The Internet scavenger hunt pitted Choctawhatchee (sponsored by ITT Avionics at Ken Mathiasmeier’s insistence) against Fort Walton Beach (sponsored by Janice Brooks of PMI Employee Leasing) and lasted about an hour. Clark Parkhurst of Choctawhatchee narrowly edged out the Viking team to take home the trophy. The scavenger hunt took the contestants through some state and federal government sites, local home pages, and a spin by the Finnish embassy.

County Commissioner O’Dell delivered to me a framed and signed copy of the resolution the Information Technology Committee helped draft. This resolution took a stand against taxation of the Internet and computer software.

To see photos of expo that Clay Hamilton of Cybertron shot set your browser to see the expo scrapbook (this is truly a great piece of work, thanks Clay!) at this address:

http://www.cybertron.com/fwb/expo/scrapbook/main.html

About the only thing that Clay didn’t capture was the aroma of popcorn wafting through the exhibit area. But given his web authoring talents don’t be surprised if Cybertron starts including scents and tastes to their web pages.

Notable memories and quotes from the expo:

"You may be a digital redneck if your email address is

BillyJoeBob@overyonder.com" -- Clay Hamilton - Cybertron

"Image is everything, perception is reality" -- Rip Kirby - Digital Witch Doctor

"Can you find White Zombie on the net for me?"

-- A wheelchair-bound "webhead" kid named Dave

(and Rip’s best moment was finding it for him)

Special acknowledgment to our sponsors who took a leap of faith to bring Silicon Beach to reality. The Daily News was very supportive media sponsor and conducted a survey of the attendees at the expo. Sprint’s connections were there for us. As you could imagine, had they been otherwise we would have all been elsewhere or listening to Dave Goldflies. Cellular One made sure we had the seminar room and a presentation on wireless technology. Cox Communications got us the air time on Emerald Coast Cable TV. The Small Business Development Center and the Tourist Development Council both helped promote our expo. The Holiday Inn cut its teeth on the high-tech expo business.....they really hustled. Microsoft donated the scavenger hunt prize, a $800 software package. The chamber staff and executive committee were very supportive. Thanks to all.

Our chamber web page for the expo (www.fwb-chamber.org/expo) will soon carry information for next year’s expo. Nucleus Communications (www.nuc.net) has kept after the page and is ready to keep it updated for next year’s event.

A very special acknowledgment goes to Dan Bender of DJB Enterprises who kept after the expo’s development and nurturing with only a three and half month planning period. During the expo he was the man that made sure that our power situation was remedied and spent a lot of time tracing power cords. Ted Holoway of Sverdurp was the energizer bunny for school participation and is on his way to making NetDay 96 happen for Okaloosa and Walton Counties schools.

I am very excited about Silicon Beach Expo 97 as are the exhibitors in this year’s event. We hope to set up some more seminars well in advance to allow people to learn along the way.

This article was published in the October 1996 issue of Coastlines, a publication for the Fort Walton Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce courtesy of the Daily News.

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